I have tried to detect cats in my garden previously (CatDogFoxBot #6 : Trying out an Artificial Neural Network ) without much success so I was quite excited to discover that I had accidentally created a cat detector yesterday. I am part way through installing a path through my lawn when I had to stop as I had run out of brick pavers as for some reason it now takes three weeks to deliver them instead of one. I had put down the sharp sand ready for the bricks (whenever they might appear) and packed up. I was surprised - and delighted - to discover this morning that I had created a cat detector!
With this cat detector I can measure how many cats have passed this way (one!), how many legs it had (four) and which direction it was going (West). It is also possible to detect if it had rained as well (it had).. With a bit of calibration I am sure it would also be possible to measure how heavy the cat was.
There are some drawbacks to this system. It does need re-smoothing after every measurement but I'm sure some sort of mobile robot sweeper could be constructed to do that, ?Nor does it give an accurate indication of the time at which the cat passed by - only that it was some time last night. Maybe I could install some sort of pressure plate connected to a data logger.
I think I will go out and re-smooth it now and see if any more cats pass by.
Dubbie
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